Nice, Lisa. I like Mourning Dove,too. Sorta off topic, but I saw a cardinal feeding a little brown bump of something in the orchard yesterday. I was walking my little senior pup and the cat always has to come with us. Well, I hurried ahead and scooped up the baby cardinal and placed he/she in the tall grass before Kitty spotted it. The baby made a big fuss and spread its wings to try and scare me, I felt bad. The adult hovered nearby so I'm sure it knew where it was.

We have been noticing this year our feeders are not emptying as fast as previous years. I did see a lot of birds when it was snowing. A group of about 10-15 juncos, a half dozen mourning doves, the usual cardinals, chickadees, tufted titmice and a few finches along with an occasional woodpecker. The last couple of days it has been quiet out there. I asked my husband to check to see if the feeders were empty in the back. I could see there is still sunflower seed in one feeder and one was empty. He said the back feeders weren't empty but he filled them all, so we will see. I just ordered a heated pet bowl to use as a bird bath for them and I'm excited to see if they take to it. I have seen black crows in the yard this year for the first time in 30 years. I have no idea why. We do see an occasional hawk but none of late. There have been a group of 4-6 crows roosting in a neighbor's silver maple trees on some days. They would fly off and circle and land again in the trees repeatedly. Then one day I looked out the window and three of them had landed in our yard on the ground for a bit. That's a first. I keep hearing them in the neighborhood every once in awhile. I wonder what has suddenly attracted them to our neighborhood. I also wonder if they have any effect on small bird populations?

The cheapest way to get rid of a cat is to do something to make it remember your yard as a no-go zone. In other words, scare the crao out of it. I had this orange cat stalking around in my yard, trying to catch my birds. One day I looked out, saw the cat in the bushes between my deck and the lawn, so I grabbed an air horn, and slowly sneaked up behind it, and blasted the air horn right behind hit. I've never seen a cat jump so high in my life, and it ran, and ran, and ran, and I've never seen it again. I guess I traumatized it! Joe

was 4 degrees about sunup this thanksgiving morning. a mixed flock of chickadees and nuthatches and titmouse"s all over the suet block and the woodpecker block. A flicker perched in the tree watching them. Scrub jays and pinyon jays and magpies all over the stumps covered with mixed seed and crumbled cornbread. And a flock of eaurasian doves cleaning up under the feeders and a bunch of juncos running around on the ground. one scruffy little ground squirrel after the cracked corn.